Paul reaches for a picture every Corinthian knew: a footrace. Everyone in the race runs, but only one runner takes the prize. Barnes thinks Paul probably had in mind the Isthmian games, held on the isthmus near Corinth, and Gill, who also thinks them the most likely, adds that Paul uses these terms because they "were well known to the Corinthians." The question is not meant to discourage them by saying only one Christian is saved. It presses them to run with the same seriousness and self-denial as a runner who wants to win. Paul has just shown his own self-denial for the gospel's sake (1 Corinthians 9:19-23), and now he calls them to run the same way.

Paul answers in the same breath: "So run, that ye may obtain" (1 Corinthians 9:24). He explains that every competitor "is temperate in all things," running for "a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible" (1 Corinthians 9:25). Then he points to himself: "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly" (1 Corinthians 9:26). He keeps his body under, "lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway" (1 Corinthians 9:27).

Corinth sat by the isthmus that joined southern Greece to the mainland, where the Isthmian games were held. Barnes describes them as celebrated "with extraordinary pomp and splendor." The word for "race" is stadion, the racecourse or stadium, and "prize" is brabeion, the award given to the winner. Barnes, citing Addison, lists the crowns used at the great games, a wreath of olive at Olympia and, at the Isthmian games, a wreath "of pine." Gill notes that the Isthmian crown was made of pine branches or leaves; Paul calls such a crown "corruptible" (1 Corinthians 9:25).

Paul uses the race to show that the Christian life is not careless or aimless. The runners at Corinth gave up comfort for a wreath that would wither. Believers run for "an incorruptible" crown (1 Corinthians 9:25), so their discipline makes even more sense.

The picture has one key difference from the games. Matthew Henry points out that only one runner wins at the games, but in the Christian race "You may all run so as to obtain." One believer's crown does not cost another his. Henry also notes the sober side of Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 9:27: "A preacher of salvation may yet miss it." Paul held himself to the same seriousness he asked of others.